Stephen Bailey

As long as Syracuse can schedule an FCS team each season, it should. For a program that will likely be on or around the bowl bubble for the foreseeable future, an almost-guaranteed win is crucial for reaching the postseason (and in turn padding the ACC's shared bowl revenue).

Season-opening games like the Villanova one also offer a chance for the Orange to figure out some formations or tactical adjustments that work, and more importantly don't work. Obviously, George McDonald won't open up the full playbook for the Wildcats, but as far as experimenting with different receiver groupings, blitz schemes and other things of that nature, an FCS opponent can provide a unique chance for self-improvement.

Game prediction
Syracuse 45, Villanova 10

Uniform prediction
Blue jersey, blue pants, orange helmet

Chris Carlson

It's the smart thing to do given the current NCAA rules. Syracuse's goal right now is to become bowl eligible annually, something that an automatic win at the start of the year makes much easier.

The Orange plays enough automatic losses with Florida State and Clemson in their division in the ACC. With coaches getting fired so freely, they need the automatic win to pad their bottom line when they get assessed at the end of the year. And teams like Villanova are forced to risk injuries to smaller players to make a paycheck in an effort to be reasonably competitive in sports like basketball.

I wish it were a different sports landscape, but given the one we watch, Syracuse has to continue playing these games.

Game prediction
Syracuse 42, Villanova 10

Uniform prediction
Blue jersey, blue pants, blue helmet

Nate Mink

The magic number for athletic departments is seven: the minimum number of home games Power 5 schools want each year to maximize gate revenues. An easy way to do this is to contract schools to come to your campus with no return game. If you take FCS schools out of the equation, your list of schools willing to travel for one-and-dones shrinks to Group of 5 leagues (American, Mid-American, Sun Belt, Conference USA, Mountain West) and a few independents. With the cost of guaranteed home games already rising, these leagues can then inflate the market and force Power 5 schools to pony up even more cash and create a more complex scheduling formula.

Syracuse does not yet need to worry about how FCS schools will impact its strength of schedule for a berth in the College Football Playoff, and I believe the benefit of helping out a Colgate, Stony Brook or Wagner, other institutions in the state of New York, befits the stewardship of higher education.

Game prediction
Syracuse 38, Villanova 14

Uniform prediction
Blue jersey, blue pants, orange helmet

Bud Poliquin

Well, why not? Why not play an FCS opponent? Why not wade into this 2014 campaign by first dipping all of those Orange toes into that rippling Villanova water?

Hey, it seems like everybody else has scheduled a romp against some JV outfit or another. Why not Scott Shafer's club? Where does it say that SU has to be more daring than all those other FBS bullies?

Look, all that's happening here is that this Syracuse administration is making an oracle of Dick MacPherson, the ol' Hall-of-Famer who forever insisted that the deciders should allow the football guys to do what their basketball peers got to do: Play a practice game or two so as to work out the kinks.

Well, all these years later here the Orange is, sitting in the best of both worlds. On Friday night in the Carrier Dome, it'll have a season opener and an exhibition affair wrapped up in one. All of which might prompt Mac to wonder: What took you so long?